番外編：The Clock House Murders Released

It is finally October, 2025 and that means it's finally here! My English translation of The Clock House Murders (Tokeikan no Satsujin) by Yukito AYATSUJI was released last week by Pushkin Press. Or at least, it was released in the United Kingdom on the ninth of October. Readers in the United States have to wait until... June 2026. Sorry about that.

(And yes, I'm late with this announcement post. I was actually hoping for my own copy to arrive first before I'd make the announcement so I could make a personal picture, but it's still on its way...) 

It's been exactly a decade since I first translated The Decagon House Murders for Locked Room International back in 2015. Since then Pushkin Press has taken over the license, starting first with a revised re-release in 2021. Fortunately, they were interested in releasing more of the series and both Ayatsuji himself and Pushkin wanted me on board again, so then followed the sequel The Mill House Murders in 2023 and a third book, The Labyrinth House Murders in 2024. And now in 2025, it is time for The Clock House Murders, one of the most-praised entries in the series and also a personal favorite of mine. The book won Ayatsuji the prestigious Mystery Writers of Japan Award and it is a work I know Ayatsuji is very proud of and even since I got started again on The Mill House Murders, he'd mention how he'd want to see The Clock House Murders in English rather sooner than later. The book was originally released in 1991 and is set in the titular Clock House, a house with a huge clock tower and a floorplan designed like a clock, where a priceless collection of antique clocks are kept. Ghosts have been spotted in the neighborhood and a crew for the magazine Chaos are going ghost-hunting in the Clock House with the help of a spirit medium. The participants are locked inside the old section of the house where the collection is kept and they'll attempt to communicate with the ghost over the course of three days. However, they start getting murdered one by one, without any means to call for help from the outside world...

As I mentioned, The Clock House Murders is one of the most well-beloved entries in the series and can be kind of considered the grand "season 1 finale" of the series, as the first few books were written in quick succession, but after The Clock House Murders, Ayatsuji would slow down a lot more and also be more experimental in the directions he'd go with the series, with some entries being very different from others. The Clock House Murders is a grand cumulnation of Ayatsuji growing as a mystery author, starting with his debut with The Decagon House Murders and reaching one of his highest point with this award-winning novel. The Clock House Murders is being adapted as a live-action show for Hulu in Japan right now as a direct sequel to their earlier The Decagon House Murders adaptation by the way, with a scheduled release date of early next year.  

I myself am a big fan of the book: in a way I feel it's a more refined version of The Decagon House Murders and I really enjoyed revisiting the house while working on the translation this time. Oh, just allow me a little of bragging here: a while back I met Ayatsuji, and we're actually having a drink served in Decagon House Murders cups and on the table stood a Clock House Murders table clock. Miraculously, we all survived this meeting.

So if you liked The Decagon House Murders, The Mill House Murders and/or The Labyrinth House Murders, please pick up The Clock House Murders too. It is without a doubt one of the best works Ayatsuji wrote, and I have no doubt a lot of readers will enjoy this one. And don't remember, positive sales and reception is the most likely to ensure more translations follow (hopefully by me of course...), so it'd be great if you could pick up a copy!

Death of a Clown

"X marks the spot."
"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"

This book was released with a new cover in 2024, and the art is really great! So do try to get this one if you're interested in the book.

One evening, wheelchair-bound Takemiya Kaori and her father Munehiko are talking in her room, when they hear a loud cry. Carrying his daughter out of the room, the father and daughter see how a woman runs across the cross-shaped corridor, barges through the balcony doors at one of the far ends and flings herself out from the balcony down to the cliffs below: the funeral of Kaori's mother Yoriko followed soon after. Mizuho, Kaori's cousin, is asked by her mother to go visit the Cross Mansion to learn more about the death of her aunt Yoriko. Three generations of Takemiyas live at the Cross Mansion, named so after the characteristic cross-shape of the main hallway. Takemiya Shizuka is the matriarch of the family, having lost her husband recently. Yoriko had become the CEO of Takemiya Industries, but now her husband Munehiko has taken over her position. Besides Kaori, there's also a college student Jinichi living in the house, the son of a family friend studying at a nearby university.  Also visiting are Yoriki's cousin (who also works at the company) and Shizuka's personal hairdresser and family friend. Upon arrival at the Cross Mansion, Mizuho learns that the family had recently acquired a clown doll, which for some reason had been put on a display shelf on the night Yoriko flung herself from the balcony. The first night, Mizuho wakes up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, when she notices a button lying on the floor. She figures someone must have lost it, and places it in a visible place. The following day however, the dead bodies of Munehiko and his secretary/affair partner are found in the music room, having been stabbed. Everyone's surprised, not just by the murder, but also by the fact the secretary is in the house in the first place, as she left after dinner last night and it doesn't seem likely the two would be that daring to continue their affair in the Takemiya manor. Mizuho however is very shocked when she learns a button has been found outside the house, seemingly indicating the murderer left the house and dropped the button there.... but because Mizuho knows the button had initially been dropped inside the house, on the first floor cross-shaped hallway to which all the bedrooms are connected, she realizes someone inside the house must have placed that button outside after she had found it, suggesting the double murder was an inside job.

The day of the murder, the monk Gojou Shinnosuke presents himself at the house, claiming he is looking for the clown doll: it is supposed to be cursed, having brought all of its previous owners a premature death and he needs to purify it. It turns out the clown doll had been placed inside the music room, meaning it is evidence for now, so Gojou sticks around, hoping to retrieve the doll once the investigation is over. However, what nobody in the house knows is... is that the clown doll actually has a mind of its own. While it can't move or commnicate, it has been a silent witness to everything that has been happening in this house, from the death of Yoriko to the double murder in the music room, and he knews who the murderer is in Higashino Keigo's Juujiyashiki no Pierrot ("The Clown of Cross Mansion", 1988). 

Some might remember I mentioned this book in my review of ("How to Make A Crime Scene"), where it is discussed as one of its case studies, especially in regards whether the house was designed well enough keeping in mind one of its inhabitants (Kaori) is bound to her wheelchair.

 Juujiyashiki no Pierrot is one of Higashino's earlier mystery novels, back when he was still writing more classical detectives rather than the human-drama-focused mystery novels he writes nowadays. And I guess that is clear right from the start due to its unique premise: here we have a house with a unique layout (a cross layout), and there's the matter of the clown: each chapter is bookended by a monologue of the clown doll: it is a silent and truthful witness who has seen the murders happening right in front of him, even seeing the actual murderers doing their jobs, but they can not actually communicate with the other people, so they are basically a "seperate narrative" within the story. Surprisingly, this is actually used in a clever way to make the mystery much more interesting, even though the clown actually knows what is happening and there's not much of a mystery going on in their eyes: however, certain discrepencies between what the clown has seen and what we learn via the police and Mizuho's investigation of the crimes really help flesh out the mystery, creating a few "Aha!" moments that only work because we have testimony from a detached, otherwordly witness who can't interact otherwise with the world. 

And if you're mostly familiar with Higashino's modern-day writing, it might surprise you how very much not human-drama this mystery is, and a lot of the mystery-solving is very much evidence-based: Mizuho's whole reason for suspecting the murderer is in the house, is based on a deduction based on the button and the fact she knew at what time she found it, and at what time the button was later found outside the house. There are more of these "phsyical evidence-based" deductions in this book, which combined with the curious layout of the house, as if it were a Ayatsuji novel, really make this feel very different from what you'd expect of a Higashino novel nowadays. In fact, a lot of the characters are decidedly not very engaging nor nice in this book, not in a 'but it's human' kind of way, but almost comically so. The live-in student Jinichi for example is one, who constantly hits on Kaori and keeps saying he'll be the one who'll marry her... even though Kaori never ever shows any sign of thinking that much of the young man. 

While more deaths follow, the main mystery revolve around the double murder of Munehiko and his secretary in the music room, which is located on the ground floor of the Cross Mansion: interestingly enough, the living quarters of the house are all set on the first floor of the building, while the ground floor only holds the music room and a storeroom. While some clues seem to indicate the murderer might have stabbed the two, and then fled through the backdoor, the earlier button-deduction tells Mizuho the murderer was in the house, and the clown testimony tells the reader too the murderer was one of the people in the house, but who was it? A lot of Mizuho's investigation delves into the exact times everything happened, and also the mystery of why the secretary was in the house: she most definitely left by car to go home after dinner, so for what reason did she return to the Cross Mansion? While the bulk of the book is dedicated to solving the mystery, I have to admit developments felt a bit slow at time (even though this is a very short book), and moreover, the murderer's plan really involved very risky stuff for... like some benefits I guess, but was it really worth risking that just on the off-chance things would go as they hoped it'd go? Large parts of the mystery just feel more aimed at the reader, rather than it being the safest plan for the murderer (and in fact, luck does play a large part), so that feels a bit unsatisfying. It's not bad per se, but I can't help but shrug at it because it feels complicated for the sake of being complicated, and not for the sake of accomplishing the murderer's goals in a safe and sure manner.

A murder that is focused on much later in the story is more memorable, and makes better use of its props to present a more convincing mystery, though I admit it's rather simple in design, and I am going to guess a lot of people are able to guess what's going on here very early on. Saying more would perhaps already point too much to it, but I do want to make a special mention of the very clever use of the clown doll in this part of the mystery: it's not outrageously clever taken on its own, but by using the clown prop, a propr that actually can "testify" to the reader alone about what it sees, Higashino does manage to give this part of the mystery more flair than if he had just used the concept 'as is'.

Overall, Juujiyashiki no Pierrot is fairly light reading, so it's not a book I would go out of my way of recommending because it's not really making a huge impression, even if it's pretty decent. It is very, very different from what you'd expect of Higashino Keigo now though (especially considering what part of his output is available in English), so if you're interested in his earlier works, that are much closer to formal orthodox mystery fiction, this book is a fairly good example, similar to Kamen Sansou Satsujin Jiken ("The Masquerade Mountain Villa Murder Case") and the Great Detective Tenkaichi series.

Original Japanese title(s): 東野圭吾『十字屋敷のピエロ』

The Chinese Gold Murders

"No Chinaman must figure in the story."
"Ten Commandments for Detective Fiction"

I mention this basically every time I do reviews of stories I read in Japanese but set in a Chinese-language setting, but I hate how much more time it takes for me to write these reviews, because I have to look up what the Chinese pronunciation is of all the names...

Pei Jing, a state examination candidate student living in the bustling city of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, is one day summoned by Mole, the Kunlun slave (= the dark-skinned slaves hailing from isolated parts of South-East Asia) of his friend Cui Jing. While the bright young lad knows it's quite impertinent for someone of his standing to request anything, he hopes Pei Jing can help him save his master: according to Mole, Cui Jing has barely been returning home lately, going to work, but asking not to be picked up after work, and he only returns very late, without providing for any explanation. Pei Jing learns from Mole that this all started after Cui Jing had been sent as a representative to the Palace Attendant Yaun Zai, one of the men closest to the emperor, and that since that night, Cui Jing has been acting suspiciously. Pei Jing, worried his friend might have gotten involved in something shady, starts asking questions, but as he follows the trail, he ends up stumbling upon the mutilated body of a merchant, whose stomach has been cut open and whose intestines have been removed: the latest victim in a series of gruesome murders with the exact same M.O. that have been happening in Chang'an. Dou, a friend and police detective in Chang'an, confides to Pei Jing that for some reason, the local district police forces have taken off this case, with the investigation being headed by a group of guards who are under the direct influence of Yuan Zai. The official investigation is focusing on Xu Long, a shady Taoist who has been gathering followers lately and is supposed to be well-versed in the mystic arts: he might have eaten the intestines as part of the rituals needed to attain immortality. Dou however feels something is not right, and suspects the murders might have to do with the reason why Cui Jing has been mostly absent from his home for the last few weeks, Pei Jing and Dou start investigating the case together, which brings them on the trail of a big corruption scandal, and an impossible crime where a group of assassins appeared out of nowhere and disappeared with a heap of gold in Koizumi Kajuu's 2024 novel Konrondo ("The Kunlun Slave").

Some years ago, I discussed Koizumi Kajuu's 2000 debut novel Higa ("The Moth"), which featured a highly original setting, being set in twelfth century Middle-East and focusing on the mystic side of Islam as its theme, while also presenting a locked room mystery. Interestingly, Koizumi basically disappeared after his debut novel, as he wouldn't write another novel until 2024's Konrondo, which again uses a rather unique setting, and being a 'modern' take on a wuxia romance with the exact same title, a tale revolving around the nearly supernatural Kunlun slave Mole who endeavours to help his master. Koizumi once again shows he does a lot of research into these settings, and he paints a very unique background for this sometimes fantastical tale of mystery. While a lot of mystery readers might be familiar with a classic China setting mystery through Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee stories, Konrondo definitely feels different enough in both its setting and style. For one, like in Higa, Koizumi focuses a lot of the mystic side of culture: Konrondo will teach the reader a lot about mystic Taoism and the search for life elixers and eternal life by these Taoist, whereas van Gulik's Judge Dee books usually focus more on the "official" sides of society like the upper class and state Confucianism. Koizumi also has an eye for the minorities in the community of the Chang'an metropolis. From the bright Kunlun slave Mole to informant proprietor's of brothels and Dou being of Turkish descent, it's quite interesting to see how many of the major characters are not ethnically Chinese or not from the higher social classes, again in contrast to a majority of the settings in Judge Dee stories.

As a mystery, Konrondo starts off a bit slow, as there's no clear mystery: things start off by Pei Jing looking for Cui Jing, but it's not like anything really mysterious is going, Cui Jing is just barely coming back home. And just when you think things become more "properly mysterious" when we learn about the series of murders on officials who have their guts taken out of their bodies, this investigation also seems to not move as quickly or deeply as you'd suspect, as Dou isn't officially on the case and can't be too overt in his operations with Pei Jing. In the end, a lot of this story is about characters talking, and some parts do feature a lot of exposition: when Dou first tells Mole about how the official investigation is suspecting the Toaist Xu Long, they have a whole historical and theological discussion about how Mole cannot believe Xu Long is actually a follower of the deity Lushanjun, the Lord of Mount Lu. Which is interesting and all, but it's a very slow way to tell you just that Xu Long might be a swindler and how the belief the murderer is just someone who's into eating intestines is probably wrong. 

The mystery becomes more interesting when Pei Jing and Dou learn about a corruption scandal involving Yuan Zai and a shady deal that went completely wrong: Men affiliated with Yuan Zai were supposed to make an illegal deal with merchants to by-pass taxation, with the men on both sides meeting in a small hut in a lonely field. The merchants and buyers went inside the hut, where heaps of gold and the imported items would trade owners. Guards under the influence of Yuan Zai were posted on the field to keep an eye on things, but something went wrong suddenly: a fire broke out in the hut and people started screaming, and suddenly three assassins appeared from inside the hut, having killed the people inside, and continuing their kill spree outside, taking out over a dozen of Yuan Zai's guards: the sole survivor had fleed the scene and laid low, keeping an eye on the hut. After the assassins had left the scene, the survivor went in the burnt-down hut, but to his great surprise he found the loot gone: while it was logical the imported items had been lost to the fire, where did the gold go to? It obviously couldn't have been burned, but he saw the assassins leave empty-handed, so where did the gold that was carried into the hut go to, and how had the three assassins appeared inside the hut in the first place? The solution to the impossible appearance of the assassins isn't really surprising nor impressive, and in theory, the impossible disappearance of the gold isn't that interesting either, but the latter mystery and solution however is really well-grounded in the world Koizumi has depicted in this novel: while it might not be really surprising if you are somewhat familiar with the themes and subjects Koizumi is talking about in this book, I'd say he made good use of the historical and cultural background to create this impossible situation.

The mystery behind the men being found with their stomachs cut open/intestines removed isn't always at the forefront of the investigation conducted by Dou and Pei Jing, but it does of course become very relevant in the conclusion, and I'd say that Konrondo is quite impressive in its themes regarding whodunnit and whydunnit: while the 'bare explanation' of why someone was killing all these people and ripping them open might sound a bit silly, Koizumi does a great job at themetically setting up this explanation, and once again it all feels very grounded in his depiction of the culture of Chang'an and its inhabitants' habits and beliefs. There are really clever hints and thematic mirrors throughout the tale and the ironic motive for cutting up the bodies is fantastic: it plays so well with a certain piece of misdirection that is thrown at the reader constantly, but when you realize how that piece of misdirection actually works as a hint too, you start to see that a lot of what makes Konrondo works as a mystery, is it's actually a very straightforward mystery, but set in a world that is not straightforward (seen from the POV of the modern reader). This is definitely one of those mysteries you can't judge based on an isolated look at the main mystery/trick, the core mystery plot only works because of all the talk around it that help set it up. It is a motive that only works in this world, and that is what makes this a very memorable read. The ending by the way adds a more fantastical, almost fairy-tale-like epilogue, a reminder of the direct inspiration of this novel.

Which does remind me, this book definitely takes the opposite position compared to van Gulik's Judge Dee stories when it comes to trying to be an easy read. Whereas van Gulik will always try to present his China in a very accessible manner, avoiding Chinese terms and using simple accessible translations/equivalent words instead, Koizumi constantly drops references to Chinese literature and culture, using the original Chinese terms. Van Gulik's writings might sometimes feel a bit anachronistic because he'll use very English (Dutch) terms to describe certain things, but Koizumi is on the other side of the spectrum, with every other page dropping a certain term, immediately followed by two paragraphs where he will explain that term, and then the very next sentence, he will drop another term, so then he has to explain it again and again... That is another reason why the book does feel rather slow, as Koizumi constantly stops to explain that term he just dropped. Some readers might be more bothered by this than others, so it can't hurt to keep this in mind.

So while a lot of the mystery when taken in isolation isn't really remarkable, Konrondo as a whole is a very memorable story, which uses its historical setting to its fullest to bring a tale of mystery that could only work in this specific time and culture. While at times, the book can feel very slow because it spends so much time just at... explaining things about the time/culture, it's ultimately necessary knowledge to solve the mystery of the serial killings and the disappearance of the gold, and on the whole, I think it's a really well-written novel that feels original due to its seldom-seen setting and the specific themes it touches upon.

Original Japanese title(s):  古泉迦十『崑崙奴』

Bite the Big Apple

I have a pen

I have a pineapple

Pineapple pen!

 「PPAP(ペンパイナッポーアッポーペン」(ピコ太郎)

 

I have a pen

I have a pineapple

Pineapple pen!

"PPAP (Pen Pineapple Pen Apple Pen)" (Pikatarou)

It's been a while since I discussed a television production... 

Pineapple Murder? was a two-part variety program broadcast on September 20 and 27, starring the idol group Chou Tokimeki Sendenbu. It would have never been appeared on my radar, if not for a tweet that appeared after the first episode was broadcast: it noted that in the credits Shirai Tomoyuki was credited for the mystery plot. I don't know if his announcement had been announced beforehand, due to the interesting set-up of the show. In the program, the six members of Chou Tokimeki Sendenbu are invited to a manor, where they will have a small party to eat a deliciously sweet pineapple, prepared especially by the owner of the manor, who loves the fruit. In fact, his house only has one knife: a pineapple knife, used solely to cut a pineapple. The girls are shown the pineapple, which is kept in a special case. But before they get started on the pineapple, the six get an assignment. At the start of the program, they each were given a special item, like a bluetooth speaker, cat ears and balloons. They now have to go each their own way for ten minutes, making cute selfies and short videos of themselves using those items. Ten minutes later, they all gather on the ground floor and move together to the upstairs sitting room, where the pineapple is waiting for them...

Only they only find the remains of the pineapple scattered on the table: someone has eaten it!

It is then revealed the program up until now was just a ruse to fool five of the six Chou Tokimeki Sendenbu members. One of the girls is the culprit, and while everybody was taking videos and selfies, this culprit ate the pineapple by herself. The television program staff members of course all vouch for each other's alibis, making the six Chou Tokimeki Sendenbu members the only suspects. The girls sit around a table and have to find out who the culprit is, but for some reason, the videos they all took seem to show they all have an alibi for the ten-minute period they were alone. How did the culprit manage to devour the pineapple in the sitting room, while securing an alibi?

 

I have to admit I was kinda surprised at the first episode, as the show started showing floorplans of the mansion and showing where everybody was according to their alibis/videos. It was really set-up as a classic mystery story. But after the second episode was broadcast, I noticed a BlueSky post by Abiko who noted how due to certain limitations like for example budget and the fact it's a variety program starring a idol group, the potential Shirai Tomoyuki holds never comes to fruition, and that is certainly true. The mystery plot we see in Pineapple Murder? is decent at best, following familiar tropes and has the culprit use a trick that is not surprisingly original, but it is properly hinted at with visual clues and things like that.

 Only, you wonder: did you really need Shirai Tomoyuki for that? There is basically nothing here that feels distinct to his work, and that's a shame, for Shirai in particular is an author you'd associate with certain ideas. Okay, I was not expecting anything gross from the solution (again, because we have actual idols as the "characters" here), but still, you do expect something grander from Shirai, and within the show's limitations, it must have been nearly impossible to accomplish something typical of his work.

It is a trick like you often see in the Kindaichi Shounen manga, with a crime having happened while everybody seemingly has an alibi, supported by visual evidence and with people moving around in a building and timestamps and everything, but in a Kindaichi Shounen story, it would only be one element in a larger mystery story. Here it is the main trick, and if you've read a few mystery novels, you'll probably get a pretty good idea of what happened early on. The deduction scene of the Chou Tokimeki Sendenbu members is also relatively short, with most of the second episode being dedicated to the initial examination of all the members' alibis (their videos/selfies), leaving little time for the girls to come up with theories about who the culprit truly is. What we have now feels more like a basis for a larger mystery, and therefore ultimately feels lacking in content.

So I don't think Shirai Tomoyuki fans are missing out on something important if they can't manage to see Pineapple Murder?: it's definitely more something fun for fans of Chou Tokimeki Sendenbu, watching cute girls do cute things. For the die-hard fans: I believe there are two (?) special episodes on Hulu that offer more footage/content beyond the television broadcast. One thing though: the way the girls wrap up their deduction is kinda hilarious and you kinda wonder how it could ever end like that in a real mystery novel. 

Original Japanese title(s): 『ぱいなっぷるまだ？』 

The Lamp of God

Rationality, that was it. No esoteric mumbo jumbo could fool that fellow. Lord, no! His two feet were planted solidly on God's good earth. 

"The Lamp of God"

Kitayama Takekuni is an author discussed on this blog and that is usually in his role as a writer who specializes in locked room murders with a mechanical trick behind them. If you look at his work in the Danganronpa Kirigiri novels, as well as the Danganronpa and Rain Code games, and of course his Castle series, and the adjecent novels Alphabet-sou Jiken/The Case of Alphabet (2002) and Gettoukan Satsujin Jiken ("The Moonlight Manor Murder Case" 2022), you'll quickly recognize his knack for inventing original and usually bombastic mechanical tricks to his locked room murder situations, almost like he's playing a round of The Incredible Machine. The first installment in the newest Castle book, which started its serialization in the summer, too promises to be another show his inventive mind.

But before that, we have a different kind of impossible mystery to discuss in regards to Kitayama. Late September saw the release of his newest short story collection Kami no Hikari ("The Light of God", 2025), which collects five stories set in different times and about different people, but all connected through one theme: the impossible disappearance of houses. In each of these stories, Kitayama pulls off the magnificent feat of making a whole building, or in one case, a while city disappear without leaving a trace. This might be the very first mystery short story collection that is built completely around this trope in the genre, and in fact, on the obi the editor of the book mentions how the mere suggestion of Kitayama to write such a collection caused them to feel dizzy. But Kitayama certainly managed it, and the result is a fine example of short mystery fiction.

The first story was originally published in 2004 and is titled 1941-nen no Mauser ("A 1941 Mauser") and starts in 1986, in an old bar in Leningrad. A hunter has ventured to visit this bar, named Heroes, because many old veterans who fought in the Second World War still visit this place: our hunter looks up to the military life and hopes he can become a sniper one day, so he hopes to chat a bit with the war veterans. One of the veterans, a former sniper, tells the man about a strange experience he had back in 1941, right in the middle of the war when the Nazis were entering the Soviet Union. The Nazis were also after treasures, and one of those targets was the Glass Room, a "sister" to the Amber Room in the Catherine Palace. As the name would suggest, the Glass Room consisted of beautiful glass and crystal ornaments and was worth a fortune. The Nazis were planning to move the valuables out of the room, but such an operation would take days due to the delicacy of the treasures inside. The Red Army therefore decides to install a two-man sniper unit at a place overlooking the manor faraway: they could easily take out any Nazis attempting to steal the Union's treasure, especially as the Nazis could only transport the treasures out during the day, meaning they don't even have to watch it overnight. The two men brought to an impromptu watchtower, which allows for a good sight on the manor. They spot a Nazi soldier on the rooftop, but don't take any action. When the sun sets, they move to their camp and return to the watchtower the following day, only to find the whole manor missing. Did the Nazis steal the whole building in one night, or something else going on.

This is a great opening story: like the other stories in this volume, it makes great use of the historical setting, both for the atmosphere, but also in terms of how it relates to the mystery, for example when it comes to clueing. While the story is fairly short, Kitayama manages to go over a lot of the "likely" theories that would explain the impossible disappearance and discard them for various reasons, from practicality problems to some "solutions" simply not making any sense to do in the first place. The way Kitayama manages to use a certain clue to both discard a likely theory, but also use it as a definite clue to point to the true solution is really great. The trick itself is grand, as you might expect from Kitayama. It's nuts in terms of how feasible it is in real-life, but it is thematically very fitting. You could easily imagine this trick being used for a "minor" disappearance, but it wouldn't be Kitayama if he didn't use it on something as grand as a whole building.

The title story Kami no Hikari ("The Light of God") goes one step further, and is about the disappearance of a whole city! A not-so-lucky gambler strikes up a conversation with someone at a bar who challenges our gambler, promising to pay out some money if our gambler can come up with a mystery our challenger  can't solve. The gambler himself doesn't even need to know the answer himself, as long as it's a mystery that occured in real-life in relation to himself. The gambler recalls the mysterious experience his grandfather had in 1930: unlike his grandson, his grandfather George was a great gambler: a well-honed sense of memory allowed him to win often at cards and other games and while he had to be careful, he managed to slowly amass enough money to allow him to leave his hometown and try his luck in Las Vegas. He knew the casinos there were careful for people like him who could memorize cards, so his idea was just to make one single strike that could set himself up for life. As he explores the various games, he happens to overhear some high-rollers, who talk about an exclusive invitations-only bus leaving in the early morning for a secret location. George quickly deduces the bus will bring those guests to a special casino with higher stakes and payout rates. He sneaks in the luggage compartment of the bus the following morning and an hour later, he finds himself in a secret city built in a kind of basin. He manages to win some money and decides to steal a bike to get out of town quickly before they realize he's not an invited guest, but soon after he's out of town, his bike breaks down, forcing him to spend the night in a small cabin. When he wakes up the following morning however and looks back.... he finds the whole city missing, and a mysterious light shining down at him. The whole experience makes him feel dizzy. The next moment, he wakes up at the airport, with some pocket money and a ticket for the first flight out of town in his pocket. What happened here?

The title of the story is of course inspired by Ellery Queen's The Lamp of God (another impossible disappearing house story) and the divine light George sees is a vital clue in this story too, but otherwise, there's not much that ties these stories together.This is a story with a great atmosphere though and we also have a Kitayama who's great at snubbing out the solutions you're likely to think of first with both physical evidence and otherwise logical arguments against them. While these stories are all fairly short, usually consisting of 5 segments of which only the middle ones are dedicated to the mystery, and the first and last sections to the framing story, Kitayama always manages to discuss multiple theories, which is pretty impressive. I think the build-up and the atmosphere of this story is great, but depending on your background, the solution might be a bit easier to guess than for the average Japanese reader. I like the story a lot, but certain references did nudge my mind towards a certain theory early on, which proved to be right. Which is a bit of a shame, because it makes me feel like I solved it partially not based on the clues, but just on random knowledge. Which is perhaps a thing here, the solution is definitely better more memorable than the actual path to the solution/the clues.

The third story I already discussed last year, as it was included in the anthology Honkaku-Ou 2024 ("The King of Honkaku 2024"). I refer to that review for my thoughts on the Poe-inspired Mikansei Gekkou - Unfinished moonshine ("Unfinished Moonshine"), but it is cool to see how that story too is part of the "historical setting" theme of this collection.

Fujiiro no Tsuru ("Lavender Cranes") is a story set in three different ages, focusing on three impossible disappearances of buildings. All stories focus on a female member of the Fujiwara clan who possess enigmatic abilities and the young men they protect in their respective ages. In the Heian period, in 1055, while a young male heir of the Fujiwara clan is on the run, a shrine maiden manages to make a whole shrine standing on top of a mountain disappear. In 1999, a young man who lost the ability to play the violin visits the countryside, where a girl preparing for a local festival spirits a shrine on a hill away. And in 2055, a woman of Japanese descent who is a member of the clan running FUJIWARA Industries is suspected to be involved in making a whole military fortress disappear. What binds these three mysteries across the ages? 

A mystery that is somewhat reminiscent of Rurijou Satsujin Jiken (The" Lapis Lazuli Castle” Murder Case): while they don't talk about reincarnation here, the fact we have similar characters appear across multiple ages in a kind of star-crossed destiny manner, and have them deal with similar mysteries of course rings some bells. This is a story, where the atmosphere wins it from the actual trick behind the disappearances: while the trick, which is basically the same across all ages, is one you can understand on a theoretical level, it becomes a bit fantastical when you have to imagine it being used for real. However, because there's a somewhat fantastical atmosphere in the first place, with the story jumping between the ages and presenting a similar disappearances in different contexts, it does work here.

 Synchronicity Serenade is a story originally written for this collection and deals with a reporter who has a recurring dream of an ash-white house, which is then swallowed by the fog and disappears. He mentions it on social media, and is suddenly contacted by a professor, who says he's been having the same dream, and that there are others too who experience the same. He invites the reporter to join his workgroup, as the professor has been researching this phenomenom, but while the reporter initially thinks it has to be fake, he slowly starts to have doubts when the professor shows him a picture of the very house he had been dreaming off. The professor even has an address, so the reporter decides to investigate the house himself to learn why he's been having these dreams, but can he reach an answer?

This is a somewhat different story, as it's set in the modern time and we don't really have an impossible disappearance: it only disappears in the dreams, and the investigation is more focused on why they are having these recurring dreams, and whether the professor is really investigating these dreams or not. The whole story has a somewhat dreamy feeling to it because of that, and while I think the final solution presented is interesting on its own and fits the vibe of the tale, I think the false solution presented earlier feels more in-line with the other stories in this collection.

These were the five stories included in this book, but if you buy your copy of Kami no Hikari via the stores of Kinokuniya within a certain period, you actually get another extra story. At least, your receipt is extended to include an original illustration by Kitayama himself celebrating the release of the book, and a QR-code that leads to another Kitayama story about an impossible disappearance. The story Sayounara, Usagi-dan ("Farewell, Bunny Gang") was originally published in 2011, in issue 49 of the magazine Mysteries! and it was meant to be a farewell to the black bunnies that had been featured on the cover of the magazine for quite some years. Kitayama had been a fan of the illustrations, so he wanted to give them a grand farewell, which involved him reimagining the bunnies as a gang of children without parents, who act as phantom thieves while wearing bunny masks. Hot on their trail are two other children, a sister and a brother, who are great detectives. The tale starts off with the Bunny Gang pulling off another heist succesfully and the narrating bunny gang member announcing their next heist will be his last, as he's too old to remain in the gang. Their next taget turns out to be an entire building, but can the detective siblings prevent such an audacious heist?

This story has been described as a hidden Kitayana masterpiece, and indeed, it's much better than one would expect as a playful farewell story to some magazine mascottes. The story is fairly short, but withi that limited amount of space, Kitayama manages to set-up the whole fictional world of the Bunny Gang, our narrating bunny and the two detective siblings, and also set-up two impossible crimes: one in the in media res opening scene and the main mystery of the disappearing building. The solution of the latter is as grand as Kitayama can get, but it's a bit easy to guess and I have seen another impossible building story that uses the same basic foundation (but with a very different outcome). The first one is the kind of impossible theft you could imagine Lupin the Third of Kaitou KID to pull off and is pretty fun. But I honestly don't understand why this story isn't included in the Kami no Hikari collection properly. While I get it's a bit different in terms of atmosphere, as this is cartoonier than the historical, realistic settings of the stories in the collection and perhaps the story works better with the context of them being Mysteries! mascottes, but still, it's a damn fun story that should be in a proper collected release.

At this point, you can guess what I am going to say here: yes, Kitayama Takekuni's Kami no Hikari is definitely worth a read. It's unique as a collection focusing on disappearing buildings and while some of the solutions to these mysteries feel a bit more fantastical than others, I think these stories are worth a read, as they are all really solid stories, with great set-ups and fantastic atmosphere. If possible, I'd also recommend you to purchase a copy via Kinokuniya in Japan to get the bonus story, though this might only be applicable for physical copies and bought at the physical stores themselves (as I got the code printed as an extension to my receipt). 

Original Japanese title(s):　北山猛邦『神の光』:「一九四一のモーゼル」 / 「神の光」 / 「未完成月光 Unfinished moonshine」 / 「藤色の鶴」 / 「シンクロニシティ・セレナーデ」/「さようなら、ウサギ団」

Mr Brain

"Thoroughly respectable and honest. Not, perhaps, remarkable for brains."

"Murder on the Orient Express"

Now I think about it, it's been easily over a decade since I first read about this book...

Magical Zunou Power!! ("Magical Brain Power!!") was a long-running primetime television quiz program presented by Bandou Eiji and featured a mostly fixed pool of participants of television personalities, some of which are nowadays so huge they have their own television programs like Tokoro George. The program consisted of several rounds of various quizzes with which you could earn 'Brain Power' and of course, the one who has accumulated the most BP at the end, wins that week's episode. The show itself ran from 1990 until 1999, but for the mystery fans, the period that is of interest, is the early days of the show, from 1990 until 1992. For it was during this period, the final round was the Magical Mystery Theater: a short 5-10 minute drama show where a mystery would be presented. While the Magical Mystery Theater segments are all very short, there is "continuity" between them: in the 'series', we follow the private detective Nakatani Shouichi and his niece Natsuko, a college student who acts as her uncle's assistant. The difficulty of each 'story' would be indicated with a Brain Power value, which was also the maximum of points you could earn if you got the answer right (you could be rewarded points for getting it partially correct). After watching the video, the participants would have to guess how it was done or who did it, with an explanation of course. Once everybody had presented their answers, a final, one minute video would follow with the solution. As it's just one round in a quiz program and participants need to be able to briefly explain their solutions, most of these stories are fairly simple in set-up and often revolve around just one single idea, but even so, some of the ideas seen in these segments are actually quite interesting. That is easily explained, when you learn that among those who provided the screenplay writers with the core mystery plots, there are mystery writers like Orihara Ichi, Abiko Takemaru and Shinpo Hirohisa. According to Abiko, Magical Mystery Theater was actually the highest-rated part of the program initially, but even after the overall show started to get higher ratings, this segment's ratings didn't really change accordingly, so it was eventually cancelled.

Shinpo Hirohisa, one of the 'mystery plot' writers, would later revisit some of the scenarios he wrote for the show in Satsujin Trick Gekijou - Nandai Mystery 11 Renpatsu ("Murder Trick Theater - 11 Difficult Mysteries", 1996). The concept of this book is quite interesting. On one hand, it is a book for fans of the original Magical Zunou Power!! corner: Shinpo gives us a glimpse behind the scenes of the Magical Mystery Theater segment, describing what they were going for, how ideas would be discarded and how the segment eventually was cancelled. The eleven stories featured in this pocket are also all followed by an essay on the specific story, noting when the corresponding Magical Mystery Theater segment was broadcast, reception on the quiz, the creative process behind the story/trick etc and what authors/works he drew inspiration from for the trick. This makes this book very informative also for mystery authors I think, as you get an idea of how a mystery writer might develop an idea seen in work X into a different idea, but with the same "foundation."

On the other hand, the eleven stories in this volume are also decidedly not Magical Mystery Theater stories... because obviously, Shinpo doesn't own the show and the characters created for that show. Because of that, he has rewritten all these scenarios with new characters, as well as sometimes changing the plot/trick/clues to accomodate for the book format. It's not the detective Nakatani nor his niece Natsuko who stars in these stories, but we mostly follow Yukiko and Fuyumi, two friends who after graduating haven't quite decided what to with their lives, and so Fuyumi suggest they become detectives, much to Yukiko's shock. They apply at the agency of the detective Mei, but while they don't get hired, they remain on friendly terms with him, occasionally getting him involved in the incidents they end up in, or vice-versa. One important thing to note is that this book also features many original illustrations by Noma Miyuki, the creator of the extremely long-running mystery manga Puzzle Game ☆ High School. They really add a lot of character to this book, especially as it's not 'just' character art, but also depictions of scenes from the stories etc.

Ultimately, these stories were created to be quizzes, so they are by design very straightforward and simple, usually only utilizing one single idea. The book acually retains the "Brain Power" concept of the original show, with each story being worth a number of points, and there's usually also a story section before the solution, that is considered optional: you can skip it to get a high score, or read it to be pushed in the right direction. Note that this optional section isn't just a list of hints, it's a proper part of the story with dialogue and sometimes even story developments.  But because many of them are really just single-idea concepts that you may have seen elsewhere already, I am not going to discuss each story this time.

The first story, Hito wo Kuu Heya ("The Room That Eats People") is the story that first made me aware of this book: it was mentioned in a mook on locked room murder mysteries edited by Arisugawa, being mentioned in a long list of recommended short locked room/impossible crime stories. In this story, we first see Fuyumi and Natsuko visit the detective agency of Mei, who decides to test the two girls with an excercise in a stake-out. He puts his assistant Dan in a room, and tells Yukiko and Fuyumi to keep an eye on the room, making sure his assistant doesn't escape. Fuyuko is told to watch the door from the corridor, while Yukiko is brought outside and told to watch the window from the street. After a hour, the two are to swap places, and after another hour, Yukiko is to enter the room and apprehend Dan. The two girls do as told, and two hours pass by without anything suspicious happening in the room. But when Yukiko enters the room, she finds the room empty. How did Dan escape? The trick behind Dan disappearing from a room under observation is pretty simple and it's likely you will have seen a variation of the same idea before, but Shinpo does a great job at planting the clues that point to that solution, and I would have loved to have seen the Magical Mystery Theater segment. In the essay, Shinpo mentions how Miyabe Miyuki told him how she really liked the tale, only for Shinpo to reveal he actually got the idea from a Miyabe story, transforming it in a way so even she herself didn't recognize it!

In Shide no Tabi ni mo Kinen Satsuei ("Taking Photographs Even When On Your Way to the Afterlife"), the comedian Hashiba Kenzou wants Mei to help him, because he received a letter from an unknown sender, saying "she wants to return her key, but also talk with him on the 7th, when he's filming at a cliff: Hashiba suspects it's one of his three exes with a key to his apartment, but he finds the letter very creepy, especially as she apparently knows his work schedule and wants to meet him at a cliff. Mei declines the job because he is not a bodyguard, nor does he like the playboy comedian, but then Hashiba is indeed murdered, having been pushed off the cliff.  Miraculously, someone managed to take a picture of Hashiba as he was falling, which provides a vital clue to finding out which of three women pushed him, but how? Once again, the solution is very simple, but I love how it does make very good use of the original visual format: while the illustration by Noma does wonders to support this story in the novel format, I imagine it would have felt more intuitive as an acted segment on Magical Mystery Theater.

In Totemo Kimyou na Yuukai ("A Very Curious Abduction"), Mei tells Fuyumi the tale of the abduction of Yuuka, the daughter of a client, with whom he often played shogi. Mei was present when the father received the call, instructing him to go to a coin locker at the station with a stash of money. Mei is sent instead, and in the coin locker, he receives further instructions to make a phone call to a certain number from the public payphone in a nearby park. The number given goes to Osaka, but the man answering the call says that while he does know Yuuka, he doesn't know anything about an abduction. Because of that, the money deal with the kidnapper seems to have failed, and Yuuka is soon found murdered in a nearby park. Police investigation show that the man answering the phone call in fact did have a perfect alibi for killing Yuuka, but how could have kidnapped Yuuka and killed her in Tokyo, if he answered a phone call in Osaka? The trick itself I find remarkable because it is so much a trick that only works in the period this story was created: it wouldn't fly at all now, because society has changed so much and we don't use certain things anymore. But that is why I really liked this story: it is a simple, but clever trick, but it would also be very understandable to people who don't have any interest in mystery fiction, because it used an object people would know in the nineties in an original manner, but also a manner which would make you go "Aha!" because it's actually so simple. There are a few other stories that have a similar vibe, using everyday life objects/customs of the early nineties which feel out-of-date/not obvious anymore, like in Satsujin yo, Kinou ni Kaere ("Murder, Go Back to Yesterday"), where an alibi is shot down by pointing out a certain object isn't where it should be, but which nobody in Japan nowadays would really think of.

Satsujin Trick Gekijou isn't really a must-read for mystery fans, though I would definitely recommend it to those who used to watch Magical Zunou Power!! as the behind-the-scenes essays are really interesting (and I say that as someone who hadn't even seen the show!). And of course, I do have an interest in mystery shows that are formally divided in problem and solution sections, so being able to experience the show in some manner, even if in a different format, is something I appreciate a lot. While most of the stories in this book are very simple, focusing on single-idea tricks that you likely have seen in other mystery-themed quizzes, or other mystery stories already, I find the presentation of this book very consistent: Noma Miyuki's illustrations do some of the lifting, but Shinpo's writing is easy, and while the main tricks are pretty simple overall, he does a very consistent job of properly clewing everything, making these stories a bit more involving than just single-concept mystery quizzes. 

Original Japanese title(s): 新保博久『殺人トリック劇場　難題ミステリー11連発』

Accident by Design

Firmitas, utilitas et venustas 

"De architectura"  

 

Firmness, commidity and delight 

"On Architecture"

I wanted to say it'd be cool to have a mystery set in an Escher building, but then I remembered I already read one....

Kenchiku Shizai (2001), which also carries the English title The Builded Dead on the cover, is the 11th winner of the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award and is the "professional" debut of author Monzen Noriyuki, though he had previously self-published a different novel (interestingly enough, that book got a professional release later on). Monzen studied architecture in university, which is all too clear in his debut novel, which originally was sent in to the Ayukawa Tetsuya Award committee under the title The Building That Eats People. The book is narrated by Miyamura Tatsuya, a man in his thirties who's having a long holiday in Nagoya: after attending to a friend's wedding there, he decided to stay at his uncle and aunt's place, which is also an udon restaurant. His cousin Yuuichi is still in high school and (should be) studying for his university entrance exams, which explains why he is still up late at night. One evening, Yuuichi spots a light source moving about on one of the floors of the construction site across the street: a large new building is being erected there, but work has been paused for a few days due to the obon holiday season. His childhood friend Momose, whose father is a subcontractor for the construction site and working in their own workshop to meet a deadline, also sees the light. The two keep an eye on the building, and eventually confide to Tatsuya about the intruder. They decide to sneak inside the construction site to see what's happening. Fortunately, all the foundational work is already done, with the load-bearing walls/support pillars and the stairs finished, allowing them to move about relatively safely. They spot a shadowy figure and chase them into a meeting room on the second floor, but the figure locks the door behind them. Momose is sent to watch the windows outside, while Tatsuya and Yuuichi try to get into the room, which they eventually do by breaking through one of the non-bearing walls. However, they find nobody inside, and the windows are locked from the inside. The trio are puzzled by the disappearance of the figure, and Yuuichi and Momose stay up all night to see if they can spot the figure escaping the site, but it appears the shadow has really just disappeared into thin air.

The following day, they contact Kumote, the on-site supervisor, as he's the only one in authority whom Yuuichi knows the address of, and who hasn't gone somewhere travelling during the holiday season. They have another look in the half-finished building together, while Yuuichi explains what happened the previous night, and suggesting the figure might have hidden themselves inside the walls, but Kumote explains the process of constructing the various walls in the building and how it'd be impossible to either hide into a load-bearing wall, or how they would've instantly spotted someone in one of the non-finished non-bearing walls. The mystery is left unsolved by these men, but then the police becomes involved in a rather surprising manner. The president of the contruction company has gone missing, and the previous day, a cut-off finger had been sent to his home. His secretary is missing too, and one of her body parts was also sent to her home. This also happened to a teacher, who seems to have no connection to the president or the secretary. It also turns out a day worker with no fixed address had sneaked into the construction site on the same night as Yuuichi, Momose and Tatsuya did, hoping to stay in the half-finished building during the holiday, knowing it would be empty. However, he claims he fled the scene when he found three bodies cut up in pieces there, The police suspects those are the bodies of the people they are looking for, but where are the bodies? It seems obvious to assume they are somewhere in the building, but the workers themselves, with their expertise of actually constructing the walls/ceilings/floors seem very sceptical of the possibility of that, as most of the construction involving concrete/mortar was already finished and you'd instantly know if something was 'added' later on. However, when more murders occur at the construction site, it seems clear the building is indeed the crux of this mystery and it is Kumote, with his knowledge of building a house, who tackles this challenge.

A challenge indeed, but not for the reason you might expect at first. The book immediately makes an impression when you open it, as you'll find the volume opens with very detailed floor plans of the five-storey building around which most of the mystery revolves. And while having each floor printed on its own page isn't that uncommon (especially not in Japanese mysteries), the fact each floor is in fact printed on tracing paper is highly unusual! It is here Monzen already shows his familiarity with building design and construction, as tracing paper is used extensively in those fields and it is used here in the book like it is used 'in real life', to show exactly how each of the floors overlap, making you aware of where walls on different floors overlap or not and how corridors/rooms are different between floors. This of course seems to suggest something incredibly clever will be done with this... but I'd say 90% of the justification of this insert, is simply to be authentic, and not per se to faciliate the mystery. Which is a shame, because I was genuinely surprised by these pages when I first opened the book.

In a way, this experience with the very first pages of the book perfectly symbolizes my experience with the whole work. Throughout the book, Monzen really shows he's an expert on the topic of designing and constructing a building and you can feel his enthusiasm throughout the book as he builds the mystery, but it's also his knowledge that really limits the possibilities behind the book. A lot of the mystery revolves around what the murderer did with the three bodies seen by the homeless worker that night: Yuuichi and Momose didn't see anyone carrying three people's worth of body parts out of the building and because the police didn't manage to find the bodies in open spots in the building under construction, the most "mystery-tropey" solution would of course be that the bodies are buried in the walls, but Kumote quickly rejects that possibility by giving lectures on how buildings like these are actually constructed, and with most of the supporting concrete 'parts' of the building set and finished long ago and the non-bearing walls/floors/ceilings simply not lending themselves for hiding spots. Via Kumote, we learn Monzen has obviously given a lot of thought about whether the body-in-the-wall trick could work realistically without anyone noticing, and he gives several detailed reasons why he thinks that's unlikely.

So that leaves the question, where did the bodies in fact go? And how did the dark figure Yuuichi, Momose and Takuya chased, disappear from the locked meeting room? And later in the book, we have another murder on the roof, and all the suspects seem to have a good alibi for this murder, as the time of the crime can be estimated by the fact the murderer left their footprints on a part of the flooring that hadn't set completely yet at that time. While this book thus has as few impossible mysteries (a locked room disappearance even).... I have to admit I basically found all the solutions a bit disappointing. Ironically, this was not because Monzen didn't do his homework on the topic: in fact, it is the exact opposite. He was so thorough in sticking to actual architectural details and realism, the tricks he ends up using just come over as too... plain? While Kenchiku Shizai is definitely a honkaku mystery novel where they talk about locked room mysteries and impossible disappearances and tropes like hiding bodies in the walls, Monzen ends up with far too few options for truly surprising solutions to his own mysteries, and you end up feeling a bit... indifferent to the reveals of what really happened. I can agree his takes would work in real-life at a real construction site, but that doesn't make those solutions really exciting or anything, they just seem like more... realistic and practical versions of tricks I have seen used in more unrealistic, but infinitely more amusing manners, or at least presented with more energy and surprise. I think if you're into architecture, this book can be quite interesting, especially after seeing the more fantastical ways in which buildings are used in Japanese mystery fiction, but for me, it just felt lacking because of the reality.

That said, there are also really brilliant points that help support the mystery. The motive behind the death of one of the victims is really the kind of ideas I love to see in mystery fiction: it strangely fits the realistic angle of Monzen in this book despite also being pretty crazy. The same regarding another late murder: there is a very specific reason for the victim to be found with a knife in his back, which is also brilliantly realistic and at the same time so out-of-there. It's moments like these that really make an impression especially because they make a perversion of the rather realistic look at the construction industry and they really did help elevate my experience with the book.

 On one hand, I can really appreciate the research Monzen poured into this book, and it results in a book that is really educative about how a building is built, knowledge which of course comes in handy in a genre with a lot of quirky buildings with weird gimmicks. But on the other hand, Kenchiku Shizai's main mysteries are all resolved with rather plain solutions because of Monzen is bound by this realism. It's when he dares to go a bit beyond those limits, when the book feels the most memorable. I wouldn't call this book a complete disappointment though. I am aware there are more books with Kumote as the detective (and architecture/building construction as the theme), and I am curious to see what else Monzen can do with his knowledge, so I will probably try more of his books, so I will likely return to him in the future.

Original Japanese title(s): 門前典之『建築屍材』

Diagnosis of Murder

Primum non nocere

First, do not harm

I like the style of the illustrations on this cover, though I wish it was a bit more obvious which character is supposed to be who in the book. And before I had a good look at the cover at full size, I only knew it from a small thumbnail, and I thought the art would be similar to Tezuka Osamu's art, which... isn't really the case now I see it at full size.

EDS Kinkyuu Suiri Kaiketsuin, which also has the English title EDS Emergency Detective Services on the cover, is a rather interesting anthology of mystery writers, all using the same original setting: in the near future, Japan has erected the Emergency Detective Services, which functions like the emergency department of a hospital: people with medical emergencies that require a detective are brought here. The hospital has a large of number of specialist departments, from doctors handling children and animals to specialists who 'cure' impossible crimes and other curious mysteries. The doctors at this hospital are referred to Holmeses, while their assistants are called Watsons. This book contains stories by Ishimochi Asami, Kagami Masayuki, Kuroda Kenji, Komori Kentarou, Takada Takafumi, Tsukatou Hajime, Torikai Hiu, Matsuo Yumi and Nikaidou Reito, who is likely the planner of this large project as he also wrote the preface. All the stories in this book are set on the same day (the twenty-fourth of December), and each of these writers takes on one of the many departments of the EDS. Have a look at this hospital, where for some characters it's just another day at work, while for others it's a literal matter of life of death.

I first learned about the existence of this volume when I read The Uncollected Stories of Masayuki Kagami, which ironically included Kagami Masayuki's contribution to this volume, The Uncanny Deductions Department (which I won't discuss here, as I refer to that review for my thoughts on it). I say ironically, because obviously, his story was already collected in EDS Kinkyuu Suiri Kaiketsuin. Anyway, I wasn't aware of it at the time, but later I learned Kagami's story was just of many set at the EDS. Which also brings me to one other point I wanted to discuss before moving on to the individual departments/stories. When I read Kagami's story, I noticed how the scenes were all time-stamped, to give you a feeling of the "emergency" going in, but it actually had another function. While Kinkyuu Suiri Kaiketsuin features nine authors, writing about ten different departments, the stories are all set on the same day in the same hospital... so they decided to put all the scenes of all the stories in chronological order. So you are not reading story 1, and then story 2, and story 3, but it's scene 1 of story 1, then scene 1 of story 5, then scene 1 of story 4, etc. You are constantly jumping between stories, and while there are moments this feeling of "real-time"-ness is used for example for cameos between the stories, it's not actually necessary to read these stories like this: to be honest, they read a lot easier as seperate stories, instead of constantly being interrupted by other stories, so if you want to, you could just as well just read all the stories individually. The book's formatting and design is done really well by the way, with "tabs" on the edge of the page like it were a file folder, marking each department/story, so you can easily skip to the next part ("tab") of the story you want to read. 

Ishimochi Asami's story is set in the Inchoushitsu  ("Director's Office"), where the director of the EDS is visited by Minai Nanase, whose father used to work in the Poison Department of the EDS, until he died under mysterious circumstances last year: a John Doe who appeared to have been in a fire was brought in one night, but there were too few staff that night: the triage Watson couldn't find the right "Holmes" (specialist) to help the man, until the Holmes Minai happened to pass by and decided he'd try his hand. They failed in saving their patient, unfortunately, and later on the Holmes Minai summoned the Watson in charge to his office. Yelling and fighting followed, and when other people entered the office, they found both men dead: the Watson had been stabbed with a pair of scissors, which were being held by the dead Minai, who had apparently hit his head on the corner of a desk. It appeared Minai had stabbed the Watson, only to be pushed away himself, hitting his head on the desk fatally. The whole deal was hushed up, but now daughter Nanase has returned, demanding to know the real truth, because she can't believe her father would have killed the Watson for whatever reason. She threatens the director by showing she has planted a camera on Sayuri, the young daughter of the chief receptionist, who always at the hospital. Nanase has gifted Sayuri a Santa hat (with camera) and a bag with something that might "go off" if Nanase clicks her pen, forcing the director to give her all the infomation about the death of her father, hoping to clear his name. This is a pretty thrilling story playing out in the director's office, even though nobody in the hospital itself knows what is going there. The mystery regarding why Minai and the Watson ended up dead last year is pretty good, with subtle clues pointing to a well-hidden explanation for why the two men ended up fighting and killing each other. This story by the way also mentions a Holmes called Ukai, who hails from Ikagawa City... Author Ishimochi debuted together with Higashigawa Tokuya via publisher Kobunsha's Kappa-One program, which is why they know each other pretty well, and probably why Ishimochi decided to insert a cameo of Higashigawa's character here.

Nikaidou Reito is responsibile for two storylines, but both of them are very light. The Uketsuke ("Reception") story features more like intermezzos between the various stories, featuring cameos of characters from all the stories. The Shouni Suirika ("Children's Deductions Department") story stars six-year old Shibugaki, a guest Holmes who narrates like he's a hardboiled detective. He solves a few minor mysteries fellow children bring him, and the main mystery for him revolves around two children who have an argument about a place both of them supposedly visited, both calling the other a liar. The solution is basically just a trivia thing, so not really interesting as a puzzle.

Kuroda Kenji's Sports Suirika ("Sports Deductions Department") has a far more interesting puzzle. Banba, A father who coaches his own son, a promising swimming athlete, has a rather unique problem. His son is always losing to Hino Shouta, so Banba decided to adminster doping to Hino, in the hopes of getting him disqualified. Banba knew Hino's diet is closely monitered and that he always has to drink a certain energy drink before going in the pool, so his plan involved administering a forbidden drug in one of his drinks. Hino receives a month's supply each month, and is of course quite protective of his energy drink, but last month, Hino, Banba's son and other swimmers were all training together at a facility, and Banba found an opportunity to sneak into Hino's room, where he had stashed his newly delivered supply of his drinks. Banba had prepared a special gadget which allowed him to reseal a bottle, making it impossible for anyone to see the difference between an originally-sealed bottle, and the one he opened. And indeed, Hino broke a swimming record when the big competition came around, so everything seemed to go according to plan. Until... Banba heard no news of Hino being caught for doping. Was everyone covering up for Hino? Banba thus wants the Holmes to how Hino could've used Banba's doped drink without being caught, as he is absolutely sure Hino couldn't have known he had been doped. An interesting puzzle of the kind you don't often see in mystery fiction (a doped drink, i.e. not poison) and I also really like the way Kuroda used a hidden fact, which you can deduce based on the hints, to explain what happened to Banba's doped drink and how it was used by Hino. I'm always a fan of these kinds of stories, where you don't deduce the "main" mystery straight on, but it becomes a two-level type of mystery. 

Takada Takafumi's story is set at the Rekishi Suirika ("Historical Deductions Department"), fitting as Takada's mainly known for his Q.E.D. historical mystery novels. This story revolves around a dying message, where the victim was holding on to a page from a Japanese historical poem, which should point to one of three suspects for the murder. Like all good dying message stories, this story points at several possible interpretations of the message, all pointing to different suspects, until the Holmes comes with the correct solution, but this story does what is always risky with dying message stories: the final, correct solution fails to be really convincing as the final one, as in, it fails in convincing the reader this last solution is the actual correct interpretation and that the others are wrong. In reality, the 'wrong' possibilities feel as valid as the real one, which undermines the whole dying message.

Another disappointment for me was Torikai Hiu's Doubutsu Suirika ("The Animal Deductions Department"), where the Holmes is asked to save a dog who was poisoned, the third victim in a series of dog violence, one of them even fatal. The story is basically a missing link story (why is someone targetting these dogs?), but the solution is not really surprising or entertaining as mystery fiction, with the link feeling somewhat out of place and also over-telegraphed. This idea would perhaps have fared better if this was only the first part of a mystery, with more building on it/as part of a larger narrative. But on its own, it feels underwhelming.

Komori Kentarou's Gaikokujin Suirika ("Foreigner Deductions Department") deals with mysteries involving foreigners, with specialists from various cultures present. In this story, a Japanese man is accussed of the murder on his American wife Lucy, who was set to inherit her father's business, which would have greatly upset her father's business partner. Husband was working on the building project America Village in D City, with the husband acting as a liason for the city as he speaks English. Lucy was visiting Japan for the first time and after staying at her brother and sister-in-laws, she was given a ticket on the express train to Osaka to reunite with her husband. However, she did not arrive by the express train she was given tickets for, and the following day, she was found murdered near the hotel of the husband. The husband had since said a few things that seemed to indicate he knew more about her death than he was willing to admit, which has made him the prime suspect in the murder, even though Lucy's father's business partner, who was also in Japan, had a good motive for wanting Lucy dead, even though he has a perfect alibi for when Lucy would've arrived in Osaka. This story has both brilliant ideas, and very wrong concepts. The book presents great reasons for why the husband's a suspect, and these reasons are closely related to the mystery genre, as it involves linguistic misdirection (only in this case, it was the husband who accidentally said something that put suspicion on him), but then the trick behind the 'alibi trick' behind Lucy's death follows, which is a bit troublesome. For there's a brilliant piece of misdirection, one I truly love and which I think is incredibly well thought of, but it is immediately followed by an idea that hinges on a complete misunderstanding on the part of author Komori about how a certain thing works, and it makes the whole deal fail. For that... is not how it works. So that trick wouldn't work. Which is a shame, for the first part of the idea is really good and a good example of the mystery trick based on cultural differences.

Tsukatou Hajime's Fukanou Suirika ("Impossible Deductions Department") starts when two men are brought in: one is unconscious, the other has been strangled to death and in such a strong manner hand marks can still be seen around the throat of the victim. It turns out both men were found in the same storehouse, which was locked from the inside and the only key was also found inside. This seems to point to the unconscious man (Rokujou Eiichi) as the strangler of the other man. The Rokujous are a fashion mongul led by Eiichi's father, and the victim was a freelance writer who was visiting the Rokujous to interview them on the upcoming fashion show. Both Eiichi and the victim had vanished from the sights of the other people in the house after a fight, until they were found in the locked storehouse, one of them dead. Eiichi's brother however doesn't believe his brother killed the man, despite the fact the only key was found inside the locked storehouse and the victim clearly having been strangled by hand only shortly before he was discovered in the locked storehouse. This is a mechanical locked room as we have come to expect from Tsukatou, though I wouldn't consider it one of his best. While he sketches an interesting problem with a locked room murder trick that involves strangling, the solution to the locked room is rather simplistic, and you'd wonder whether it'd really fool the police for long as it seems a bit unbelievable it would work the way it is described here. So not one of my favorite Tsukatou tales.

Matsuo Yumi's Joseika ("Women's Deductions Department") has one of the more interesting stories in the tale: Migishi, the Holmes of this department, is visited by a pregnant woman who comes with a strange tale. Last week, the client, who will soon give birth to her first baby, was on her way to the Q University Hospital when she noticed a new gynecology clinic had opened nearby. As the place was less crowded than Q University Hospital, she decided to have her check-up there, and she was quite pleased with how things went, so today (two weeks later), she visited again, only to find the place was closed and everything had been removed, and there wasn't even a notice or anything explaining why it had closed. It is odd a clinic would close so suddenly, so Migishi takes the case, planning to call some acquintances in the medical world to see if they heard about anything about this, but to her surprise another client arrives directly after the first left, with the exact same story. What happened to this gynecology clinic to have it disappear so suddenly? While this is a variation on a well-known type of mystery story, I think Matsuo did a great job at spinning this into her own original version and at the same time, working this into the EDS theme of the Emergency Detective Services being a hospital too. To be honest, a lot of the other stories do extremely little with the hospital theme, so this one really stands out, which is surprising to me, as this was the one author I hadn't read yet before! I guess it helps Matsuo is best known for her Balloon Town series, about a town where only pregnant women live...

EDS Kinkyuu Suiri Kaiketsuin is a book that has a cool premise and few cool ideas, but it is definitely not a work where the total is greater than the sum of things. Not all writers truly make use of the unique EDS setting besides scenes of people being brought into the hospital, and while the intermezzos do their best to glue the stories together, as well as the device of having all the scenes of all stories printed chronologically, it often doesn't really feel like one coherent work of fiction. Having more of a running thread between all of them would have helped, or using a smaller cast and having Holmeses appear more prominently in each other's stories. Some of the stories are good mystery stories on their own, and others simply don't know what to do with the (relatively) little amount of pages each story gets alloted to them. So not a must-read as a whole, though some of the stories are worth a read.

Original Japanese title(s): 石持浅海、加賀美雅之、黒田研二、小森健太郎、高田崇史、柄刀一、鳥飼否宇、 二階堂黎人、松尾由美『EDS 緊急推理解決院』